My Guardian's Glare
by School Escapee
Summary: Scars are left in Zoro after 9/11 and they go deep. Little by little his life turns for the better and he can't help but feel that the friends made along the way were given by a distant memory. no pairings, real world, present day. T for swears and blood
1. Prologue

A/N: Oh God... I'm actually posting this... it started out as this obsession to be able to successfully pull off an AU then Zoro was most certainly made my main character (luvs him most x3) then I thought of the rest on accident... I'd like to thank a number of people though! *is already giving a crappy thank you speech before even one person finishes reading it xD* Lolly Dream (Is known for a few stories but I'll pick the best known... "Your Mine", "Sanji's Prank Calls" and her most recent "Laws of Love) and Psycho Chibbi (recognize her for stories like "Breathe for me" and "Cockadoodle efing doo") but they're both hard-core yaoi atticts with an obsession for blonde's but they both helped brainstorm for this. And no. This is not yaoi. Or yuri. Or any pairing for that matter. As a matter of fact... *braces self for menacing and angry and dibelieving mob* Zoro's a virgin in this for good reasons that I'll discuss in later chapters XP. I'm not sure how long this'll be but I guarantee it'll be enough to satisfy those hard-core readers. Any other subjects to discuss before you read...? Oh yeah! This is present day, real world, and some might call it historical fiction too. It takes place in NYC and Zoro is 19... Enjoy!

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"Hello. It's me Zoro again. Yea I'm pretty sure you know where I live by now. *...* How many? I think 3 gun shots were fired. It came from outside but I didn't here any screams so they probably missed. *...* Oh hey Lucy! How's the two kids? Susan's grades go up yet? *...* It's about time! I gotta run but I'll call you real soon when I hear more gunshots or something. I'd give it a few hours... *...* Bye to you too."

Yes, that's how shitty a neighborhood he lives in. Almost every officer can recognize his voice after only a year living there. He'd come back to his apartment multiple times while there to find it was broken into and they left nothing. Why live there? It was cheap. $200 dollars a month and a job as a bartender which paid $8 dollars an hour plus tips. He wasn't the cheeriest of bartenders but still got a lot of tips from drunken girls who found him attractive and such.

In total he got about a 1000 dollars a month, minus 200 dollar rent, 100 dollars in excess water and electric bills, 50 dollar gym membership, about 80 dollars in food, and 70 dollars in the commute to work each day by cab. 300 went into renovating his crappy apartment with bad plumbing flickering electricity and roach infestations for the first few months and now he had a semi-decent apartment with 500 dollar pocket change that'd normally go into his bank account to spare each month.

He had to get an edjucation so he could get out of the crappy neighborhood. He could always go to his uncle Kuma if he were really desperate but that wasn't the case and Kuma had already given him so much in the past that he refused to ask him for money he didn't necessarily need to live by.

Trudging down the street as the gunshots had woken him up early, he figured he could save some money and walk to work. Only a 2 hour walk and it was 5 a.m. right now. He didn't have to be there til 9 so he figured he had some leisure time and walked with his hands behind his head lazily.

As he liesurely walked, he caught a glimpse of someone farmiliar slipping into a nearby supermarket. Someone too farmiliar yet at the same time, a distant memory of a person he knew. He stared in disbelief for a second towards where he had thought he saw the man in the corner of his eye before calmly walking in, thinking he had imagined it but decided it was worth it to check it out.

He walked in slowly and the automatic doors slid open for him, he saw a glimpse of the man he was looking for yet again going down the refrigerated isle and his face contorted in a mixture of fear, confusion, and anger at the man as he broke into a run to reach the isle. He turned the corner with great speed but stopped dead in his tracks as he saw only an old lady in the isle, not even a man who resembled him. "The hell?" he muttered as he walked down the isle curiously.

He found himself stopping at the end of the isle, with a small amused grin on his face. "Losing your mind..." he muttered before taking notice to a poster he found amusing. There was a Poster with a pure white background and a girl who looked about 18 in a pure white dress holding out an orange in her hand with a smirk, her tongue sticking out with a caption beneath her reading plain and simple. "**Ourange Love"**, one of many brands of juice. "Slap on a hot girl and it'll sell." he mused aloud as he walked out of the store and sluggishly continuing his walk to work.

He found that as he walked, his mind kept wandering back to the girl in the poster. He willingly acknowledged she was attractive but he knew that wasn't the reason. There was something about her that tickled his brain. He focused on remembering her picture on the photo but when he thought back to it, her dress was black... maybe his- "*BEEP* Watch the fuck where you're going punk!" A man yelled as he passed Zoro, barely missing him in his car as Zoro had just walked across a busy street in the midst of his contemplation without realizing it.

Zoro shook himself out of thought and looked around, bewildered. "Where the hell am I?" He said aloud, two girls giggling as they walked past him. "Well now I'm screwed." he said as he began to ask random strangers for directions.

By the time he reached work, it was 2 p.m. and the bar-owner was furious. "Listen Zoro, you're not the friendliest of bartenders. Good-looking; I'll give you that but not irreplaceable. Does this speech sound familiar to you?"

"Yes ma'am." he replied in mock obediance but he managed to hide the mock just enough so it went disregarded.

"Well it should! I gave you this same speech last week when you showed up late, claiming you got lost on a path you took everyday for the past 6 months!" she yelled, tapping her boney fingers in annoyance. "You better have a good excuse."

"I got lost again. I think you're bar has wheels or something because-" he didn't get to finish his sentence before he heard her say in a low, monotone, leveled, and deep voice "_Out."_

"You can't be serious." he said in complete disbelief. She should tell him when she relocates!

"_Now."_she said in the same voice, her long, boney finger pointing straight to the door.

Zoro gave a growl before walking out angrily, hailing a taxi. He could have tried to walk home but he ws positive that this huge city was on a giant treadmill or something, always moving around...

Despite being a 2 hour walk, only an hour in a half if he jogged there, and only an hour if he ran all the way there with his insane stamina, the drive was a little less than 20 minutes with no traffic and he lucked out as that was the case, paying the driver but not tipping as a way to reflect his mood to the other man.

He tiredly plopped down on his hard squeaky mattress that he chose not to replace since he could aford not to replace one, being able to sleep on a mattress of rocks if he wanted to, and shut his eyes to sleep.

* * *

_Zoro was slowly walking through a forest and with each step he took, his appearance became younger and younger, him shrinking down to the size of a kid. He came to an opening in the forest, a small field and a hawk began circling around him with eyes that stared into his soul. He flew around him not like a predator though, his eyes darting to each side in more of a protective manner._

_Zoro looked at it with relief as he saw the sharp piercing eyes until he was shot right out of the sky with one clean bullet. Zoro's face quickly fell to fear as smoke surrounded him, guns being fired and bombs going off around him. He cupped his ears and collapsed to the ground to protect himself from the loud booms and flying bullets and debris until it all went silent._

_Curiously, he poked his head up to find himself surrounded by crying people in black suits, dresses and veils for the women. They were all facing a large memorial with lists of names of those who died in battle. Zoro turned away, not being particularly fond of the sight to see a girl in a black dress with rose-shaped embroidery lacing the bottom crouched into the corner to hide her tears. _

_He slowly aproached her and tapped her on the shoulder and a girl almost his age with pale skin and bright orange hair turned to him hesitantly. "It's hard..." he said, scratching the back of his head, not good at emotional speeches. _

_Apparently, it was enough though as she wrapped around him, further breaking into tears and clinging tightly. Zoro slowly rubbed her back in a comforting way with a solemn face. "It's hard... it's hard..." he continued to tell her, slightly clinging her back before she pulled away from him, both growing back into an adult right before his eyes, her dress morphing into a pure white one and she held an orange and stuck out her tongue before running away. Zoro found himself back as an adult too and began to chase after her. "Hey you're the girl from that post-" he didnt get to finish his sentence as an explosion went off and the two were consumed by it._

Zoro jumped up in a cold sweat, rubbing hiss temples before looking at the calendar, seeing the date as September 8th. "It's almost time..." he mumbled in frustration. He didn't even know it was fall, none-the-less September but somehow he did deep down due to the nightmares suddenly reoccurring as the day neared.

He glanced at the phone and realized "I don't have a job and I still have a few thousand dollars in the bank. I can go wherever the hell I want." He looked at the phone again before picking it up, deciding he might as well. After a few rings, it finally stopped ringing with silence on the other end. Zoro knew that this was a sign that the other man had picked up.

"Hey. Uncle Kuma. It's me Zoro."

"... It's 4 a.m." is all the other man said, showing no signs of fatigue in his voice... or any type of emotion for that matter.

Zoro frowned in dismay, looking at the clock to confirm it to see he was right. "Oh sorry. I woke up because..." he trailed off to think of a good excuse to say before Kuma responded. "Nightmares? I'll prepare your room for you. One week?" he stated more than asked.

"Yeah... the year flew by and I haven't seen you since Christmas so... Oh. I got fired from my job cuz they changed location's without telling me. I can be there by tomorrow-ermmmmm- today I guess... by the end of today. I was thinking maybe I could sleep in... ummmm... his room?"

"He has a name." Kuma said, blank voice again yet Zoro was sure he heard a slight sigh.

"I know... just not now." Zoro trailed off.

"He had a name before. Why not now?" Kuma responded.

Zoro hated how the other man knew exactly when he was upset, and how he'd always ask him what the "why" of the situation was. "I gotta go. There's another woman screaming in the park." he said, making up an excuse.

"You're voice gets a tone lower when you lie. We'll talk about it when you're ready. And I want you to move out of that neighborhood." Kuma replied before hanging up.

Zoro blinked in confusion at the call at his bluff before slowly putting down the phone. "Shit. I thought I was a damn convincing liar." he said with a smirk as he felt better. That was another thing about Kuma... He could cheer anyone up with the smallest of words and without even addressing the subject. It didn't even come out like a sappy speech or a pick-me-up, it was just small talk. But Zoro knew he knew. Kuma was a genius. He was like Superman... and had the build of him too. The man could bend steel if he wanted.

Zoro grabbed a suitcase and threw in a few pairs of clothes, socks, and boxers before closing the suitcase and began packing a bag with other necesities. The best part about owning practically nothing? It was easy to make a quick get-away.

Since Massapequa was a fair distance away, he stopped at the store to grab some snacks and, glancing at the poster, he brought a bottle of "Ourange Love", looking at the contact info.

A/N: Woot! I'm done with the first! A lot of you are confused as to what the hell is going on but that's just my failed attempt at a dramatic cliff-hanger! Try and guess what you think is going on cuz those are always fun to read.I did forget to thank one person though. Her ff acount name is Ouran Luv and I call her Ourange as a cute lil nickname and when thinking of Orange juice brands... Ourange Love was not a typo. It was to honor her and her epicness! *bows* R&R (not sure what it means but sees people ask for it all the time) The spelling and grammar problems I will work on in due time and I do hope this was better than you expected it to be considering how bad I have as the summary... Luv ya! (The chapters will range from 2000-3000 words and I update about every two weeks.)

Later~


	2. Chapter 1 The Pieces Are Laid

A/N: Woot! Second chapter! I got a few nice reviews, a favorite, an alert, and most importantly! *spins in a circle happily before getting dizzy and throwing up* Ugghhhh... X.x *ahem* I got me a beta! *kisses Gecko-san up and down multiple times, smearing leftover throwup on clothing* Love ya! ^.^;

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Zoro reached the house at around 9 a.m. Since it was Saturday, Kuma didn't have to go to work today, and Zoro secretly was happy about it. When he was little, he'd call his uncle Kuma "Papa Bear" and Kuma would let him ride on his shoulders, making him feel like the tallest person in the world.

Thinking back, all of his memories of Kuma were good ones. The man was impossible to hate and Zoro liked that in him. He was the most honest, most fairest person he had ever met, and so made his job as a judge quite fitting for the man. It made Zoro laugh to imagine him as anything else. It was the only fitting job, and it made sense.

He remembered when "he" died and when Kuma stepped in to take care of Zoro and when he made the awkward transition of wanting to call Kuma dad but not being sure if that'd be to ** the man... it was hard to tell.

As nice as Zoro knew he was, the man had the greatest poker face ever. He'd only seen Kuma cry twice, once was while watching Bambi (he teared up a bit during Cinderella too but for the most part he held it in...), and the other was at "his" funeral. He remembered giggling as a butterfly fluttered around Kuma's head a few times before fluttering away, Kuma walking after it silently to admire for a little while longer. He remembered how he was not once scared of the man, even as a baby. He remembered how when Kuma took him out, nobody would bump into them while they walked the busy streets, a hole always formed around them out of fear from the older man.

Zoro found himself wearing a light smile as he thought back to the fond memories of childhood, the ones that seemed to block out the bad ones which was probably Kuma's intentions in the first place, to block out the bad memories but in a less obvious way. It annoyed him so much that after "he" died, his teachers would always make an effort in talking to Zoro and would let him get away with all kinds of crap. He punched a kid and didn't even get sent to the principal's office. So, out of annoyance on the lack of punishment, Zoro's goal was to get punished, which subsequently made him pretty much popularly disliked by students and made him seem far worse a kid than he actually was.

"Do you want to come to church tonight?" Kuma asked, walking into Zoro's room that Zoro's lived in since birth to help unpack, face ever so emotionless, eyes covered by sunglasses, small enough to just barely cover the whites around his eyes.

"You know I've never been a fan of the whole "God" thing. Atheist?" he reminded, taking note of the small nod of disapproval before Kuma walked out of the room to go put some of Zoro's things in the closet. He's taken crap since he was four about not believing in God. He went to a catholic school and called B.S. on the idea since it was told to him, it was just how he is. He took an extra amount of crap considering both Kuma and his dad were devout Catholics themselves, their father being a deacon.

After a while more of unpacking and resettling into his old home, Zoro and Kuma sat on the couch to watch some TV.

Zoro was sitting there, eyes open, staring at the T.V. as if in a trance, while his mind wandered off to thousands of different things, the only thing he could even remember about the movie he was still watching was that it was black and white and that he could occasionally hear a horse and gun shots.

"Do we have any Orange Juice?" he asked suddenly, his eyes breaking away from the T.V. screen.

"... I brought some yesterday." was his short reply from the other man.

Zoro practically ran to the refrigerator, swinging the door open only to have his face drop in disappointment when he saw that the brand of juice wasn't Ourange Love. "Ummm... This has pulp in it! I'm gonna run to the store real quick." Zoro said, not really minding pulp that much, just wanting the other brand.

On his way to the store which was only a mile or so a way, Zoro couldn't help but laugh at some of the store's names, attempting to be clever. "Dogue, fashion for dogs.", "Wokkstar", and he even saw a gardening store called "The Dirty Hoe" which got an out loud laugh out of him.

Suddenly, while looking through more store names, he caught sight of the man who had been haunting his dreams once more and he growled as their eyes made contact for but a second. "Are we really doing this again?" he shouted out loud, getting worried and confused stares from others passing by before he ran across the busy street into the cafe, almost getting hit by a taxi in the process.

He dashed into the cafe, hastily looking around the room for the man who once again vanished from existence like last time before calming himself to take some of the stares off of him, taking a seat by the door.

"Hi! Can I take your order?" a jumpy teen about the same age as Zoro asked with a large smile.

"Hmmm... Just some warm milk." he said, trying to calm down.

"You're lucky! Today, a free muffin comes with each drink!" The boy said, over-excited for a total stranger.

"Lucky me!" he said with a smirk, indulging the boy with his enthusiasm.

About 3 minutes later, the kid returned with a cup of milk and puffy cheeks. "Where's my free muffin?" Zoro asked with still traces of a smile on his face. The kid gave nervous glances in all directions as he "discreetly" chewed and swallowed whatever was in his mouth, before nervously saying "Uummm... A guy stole it!" he said, never quite making eye contact with him.

"I guess you and me will just have to go hunt him down then." Zoro said with a smirk, the boy making his day with his antics.

"Umm... We can't! He had wings 'coz he was half pigeon! He swam away!" the boy said, loosening the tie of his uniform as he averted his eyes in every direction other than Zoro's.

"Well... Luffy," Zoro said, pausing to squint and read the boy's name tag. "It's a shame he stole it and "swam", not flew? Swam away because I was going to offer it to you, you know."

Luffy's eyes widened in a mixture of shock and fear in response, confusing Zoro. "How did you... How did you know my name!" Luffy almost squeaked in fear, causing Zoro to sweat drop.

"You're wearing a name tag..."

"... Oh yeah! Hi! I'm Luffy! And a bird man didn't eat your muffin! I was hungry!" he admitted, bowing in apology after re-introducing himself pointlessly.

"No? There wasn't a birdman?" he said in dry shock, the other boy not picking up on it. "You do realize that now you have to find a way to pay me back though." He said with a grin, not really wanting anything in return, just seeing how the boy would respond, not quite ready to end the uplifting chat, seeing as he got very few of them lately.

"Hmmm... Oh! My high school is having an event next week! Each student is allowed to bring in one free guest! I was gonna bring my brother but he had to leave town for work." Luffy said with a smile that radiated with love.

Zoro was caught off guard by the kind request and his smile faded into a melancholy one, causing Luffy's face to drop in worry too. Zoro quickly caught himself and said "What kind of event?" with the returned smirk.

"A party! A Hugeeeeeee PARTY!" Luffy yelled jumping up and down with a little twirl too."We have one every year!" He said.

Suddenly, something in Luffy's brain must've clicked because he jumped up and said "I'm on the clock!" before running away to one of the other tables to take orders.

Zoro gave a somber smile at the act before silently finishing his milk. He then wrote his number on a napkin before standing up to walk out, but as an afterthought, to spare himself of any confusion of leaving your number on a napkin for another guy, he added "call and give me the info- it's been fun." before walking out to head home.

Then, pulling a Luffy, something clicked in his brain before he ran back in the opposite direction mumbling "Damn it! The juice!"

Sparing no time, he went straight to the juice isle, grabbing a "Ourange Love" juice bottle and looking it over for contact info, taking note that they had a website and phone number... for a juice company. He pushed that little thought aside and hastily bought the juice, running home to make up the time he spent at the coffee shop.

When he came home, he found a small note on the counter with handwriting so neat it looked like it was printed out of a computer simply saying the word "Church," leaving Zoro alone in the house.

Wasting no time, Zoro got out his laptop with a bamboo-themed cover (Kawai ^w^~ ) and went to the website, seeing a different picture of the girl on each page of the website but not a single way to contact her. That's where it hit him. She was a thin girl with a face that didn't make your eyes bleed and a pair of boobs that made your nosebleed. She's the target of perverts nation-wide!

If they gave out her contact info, she would be spammed by so many perverts that she'd be forced into pornography! Like hell they would reveal any of her info. There were some real sick bastards living in the U.S.

He knew in order to get to her, he'd have to already know her, in a way that showed he did. The website would be useless. He may stand a chance on the phone though.

"Hello? Ourange Love, love. Care to return some?" a lady with a thick Brooklyn accent answered.

Zoro paused a second to understand the greeting before saying "Umm... Hi. My name is Zoro and I'm an old.. umm.. "friend" of your company's model. I'm hoping you might give me a way of contacting her?"

There was a pause at the other end of the line before the lady finally began talking. "Listen honey. I'm sure your feeling lonely but you gotta just put yourself out there! I'm sure you'll find a nice girl eventually if you lose some weight and get contacts instead kid." she said, making an immediate snap judgement that almost made Zoro fall out of his chair laughing.

"Pfft. No! I really know her. She met me at a memorial for the victims of 9/11. I have green hair! Just give me her e-mail or number or whatever." he pleaded, trying to use the little info he remembered/knew about her to prove he knew her.

".. Listen kid. Either you know her or you're just one hell of a creeper but its in my job description not to disclose company information and this qualifies. Leave me your number and info and I'll get it to her, kay? If she knows you, she knows you, if she doesn't, go masturbate to someone else you damn pervert!" the lady said, ever so "kind" to him.

Zoro was thankful for the chance he got to get into contact with her, although not even sure why he wanted to meet her again so badly. He wasn't even sure if she'd remember him and felt like his chances were still pretty slim but all he could do was hope.

* * *

A/N: Sup bitches? xD It's been a while since I've updated but I've started writing again and this story was begging for an update so being the kind soul that I am, I finally finished this plot bunny of a chapter. I hope this qualifies as "suspense" for ya and I'm pretty confident that this won't be updated again for a good month but never the less, hope you enjoy and wait patiently~

Merry Christmas from this messed up Catholic S.o.B.

Happy Kwanza for my fellow black men~ (I'm 1/16... It still counts :P)

and for you Jews happy Quanza~ (I heard it was offensive to say Jews and not the full word Jewish... ah well~)

And for all you people who celebrate none of the above... Happy December ^w^

Send in some comments if you wanna guess what's the hidden intention of "The man who haunts Zoro's dreams" (You know how hard it is for me to find loopholes around saying his actual name? v.v It's the little suspense this story has left so I'm keeping it bitches!) I apologize for my crazy...


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